Friday, April 24, 2009

Ugh, it seems like we have been busy every weekend since the beginning of March! A trip to Moses Lake here Swimming at the Aquatics Center there. Trips to Portland and Olympia. My goodness we have been busy.

There is another trip this weekend but, I'm staying home. Dh needs some care and feeding. Last week he got a call back from the "HMO". "Hey, you remember when you sprained your wrist? Well....someone read the x-ray wrong.....it was broken. Could you come in and get another x-ray?"

We are still waiting to hear back from them. I wonder if it will take another two and a half months. Sheesh, and people actually want to increase their tax dollars to pay for socialized medicine. Yeah, we'll all have equally crappy medical care.

Oh well, we are going to hide out all weekend watching movies. I have Fireproof, and Twilight to watch. This will be the third time I've seen Twilight. No I don't think it's that spectacular it's just that I saw it first with a friend then with the girls and now I will see it with dh. I haven't seen Fireproof yet. I have heard it's good though.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The girls and I are on vacation this week. We are up north by the Canadian boarder.The weather is the usual liquid sunshine and the girls are getting bored. Yesterday we saw Aliens vs. Monsters. Funny stuff.

We'll be heading back home tomorrow. I'll see some of you tomorrow nite.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

I have a friend who with her husband adopted two children out of Oregon State Foster Care. One of the children has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. She is 11 years old. Beautiful but very dangerous. She has threatened and abused her younger brother since before they both came to live with my friends when she was four.

Last October while her mom and I were at a class out of town she physically abused her father in a manner I will not go into here. At that time Washington States solution to the problem was to split the family up. With Dad and brother living at a different address. How is this going to help the family heal? Or there is the Catholic Community Services suggestion of building a wood box ( cage ) in the garage and putting her in it. HOW BARBARIC ! And it would take several large men to get her into it when she is in full rage anyway....sheesh! This family is at the end of the line. They have worked and tried and done everything the state told them to do with no real help in sight. The parents finally gave up and came to the conclusion that the only thing they could do was terminate parental rights and have her placed in foster care. They just had to last until Feb. 18th to have a mtg with all the "service's" to decide what the "service's" were going to recommend.

The younger brother who is now seven has not felt safe in his own home for too long. After all the phone calls, therapy, and paper work the family had a mtg with "the authorities" last week.The two therapist's that have seen all the family members both agreed that she NEEDS residential care. But, the only person there with the authority (Columbia River Mental Health) to order it who, btw has never met any of them said that the only thing available to this family is respite. Like a few hours out of the house each week will make all things bright and beautiful. Never mind the fact that RESPITE CARE DOES NOT EXIST for children who are this big of a liability. We are talking about a family that carries a $2,000,000.00 (yes, that is 2 million) liability insurance policy. NO ONE OTHER THAN HER OWN PARENTS ARE GOING TO DO THAT. The family has been seeking respite for years to no avail.

The seven year old brother wants to kill himself to be rid of his sister. YEAH, that's healthy. Let's just keep everyone where they are. Splitting the family up is not an option. The most aggressive personality needs to be removed from the family in order for the family to heal. Why do we have to tear the whole family apart over one child who cannot live in a "normal" home situation?

And when some child somewhere murder's his/her parent or sibling we all stand by in a stupor and WONDER what went wrong? Why was the kid not getting treatment? Why didn't someone do something? How could this have happened? Duh? The answer I'm sure is that service's were provided and all parties were seeing therapists and nothing worked......oh if only little "susie/bobby" had received the help (respite) they needed this never would have happened. I'll tell you what went wrong. The service's that "some" children need just do not exist in Washington State. And precious little elsewhere.

I really do not want to read about my friend and her family on the front page of the news paper.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Our youth group fun activity for February was ice skating. The girls had a great time, the adults on the other hand.....

Two adults got to top off this fun event with medical care. One with a broken wrist and one with a sprained wrist. As soon as I heard that the adult leader had broken her wrist I told dh to "get those skate's off now!" Alas, it was too late. The damage had already been done. Now all my honey do projects for the two weeks he has off work this month are in jeopardy. He has been complaining about his butt hurting too. I don't have any sympathy....it's not like someone held a gun to his head.

When asked before hand if I planned on skating I said "oh bleep no" I have a hard enough time just walking on flat, dry ground or even carpet. I'd probably break my neck at an ice rink.

Ice Skating will probably be taken off the fun list after this last weekend.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Eight year old girl is cuffed and arrested because she wouldn't take off her sweatshirt. Ok, it's a little more than that but, the whole thing could have been avoided if the teacher would have ignored the sweatshirt. I don't know what goes on in the school district where this happened but, here at our school students are molded into little tolerant robot's. With coping skills that include "talk it out" or "walk away". Instead of ignoring the girls apparel the teacher kept her against her will in a classroom and then physically restrained her when she tried to leave the room. Remember, autistic children often have over reactive sensory perceptions. This girl has been at the school since kindergarten and I would think that the teachers have had plenty of opportunity to observe the girls reactions to various situations. None of this behavior was exactly new. I hope that the parents do sue the school and get boat loads of money. With that money they will be able to care for and educate their asperger daughter better than the public school can.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Friday, January 9, 2009

Take my mil for instance. She called me on Monday with a request for our presence at a birthday party for fil. The date she wanted was already booked. I explained this and offered to send two of the five members of our family to the party. If mil wants to see all of us then she could schedule for the following weekend. She was reluctant to firm up that date and told me to discus with dh.

I emailed her a recap of our phone call and told her to plan on the following weekend when we could all be there. The next day she emailed and wondered again what date she should pick. To which I replied that if she would plan it for the date I gave her we would all be able to attend.

Now it's Thursday and here comes another email (I get the impression that she only knows how to send email) from her wanting to know what to do. Ya see this is her MO. She does it to everyone. Just keeps talking and harping til whoever she is talking to finally relents and gives her what she wants. It's been a test of wills between her and me for over 25 years now. Ya think she'd know by know that I will not be thwarted. LOL

Really, in the beginning this little game would turn snarky on my part. Now I just try to ignore it most of the time but, I've got stress this week and don't need the extra drain on my bandwidth.

She seems bound and determined to get me to cancel at least one major function so that we can drive six hours and eat a meal and turn around and drive six hours home. Oh, and then there's the dog to consider. What am I gonna do with the dog?..... cripes

I guess I shouldn't really worry about this at all since by the time March finally rolls around we may be asking mil/fil if we can move in with them. OH JOY

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

This site appears to be dedicated to movie reviews and articles about celeb's with a conservative slant. It's great to see all this stuff in one place rather than having to search for it or happen on it by accident.

The articles/contributor's I read were informative, well written and thought provoking. And full of laughs as well. I hope this new site is a success for Mr. Breitbart.